HIGHWAYS: Florist's off season means spring is ready to flower

Photographs by DENNY SIMMONS / Courier & Press
Robin Kaiser of Boonville, Ind., divides a pot of ornamental grass into culms to pot separately at her business, Robin's Nest, Tuesday afternoon. Some plants are licensed and cannot be divided, but this type was fair game for the gardening lover.

DENNY SIMMONS

Succulents, in this case a kalanchoe fedtschenkoi, offer Kaiser a healthy addiction in her greenhouse. This tropical plant produces its "babies" on the edges of its leaves.

DENNY SIMMONS

"I'm the head bird around here," Robin Kaiser said as she walked through a greenhouse at the business she and her husband, John, started more than 30 years ago. Robin's Nest is both greenhouse nursery and florist shop. Mary Greenlee, John's sister, works alongside the pair.

"That first greenhouse we built in March of '79," Robin Kaiser said. "Greenhouses are kind of a disease. Every once-in-a-while you'll look up and there's another greenhouse."

"We're gettin' ready to get some little repairs made before spring. It's the down time this time of year."

Although it is not nearly as lush as it will be come spring and summer, the greenhouses still offer signs of life such as the hyacinths, tulips, miniature daffodils and Easter lilies that have poked their heads from the potting mixture.

"Those'll be ready by Valentine's Day," Robin Kaiser said. "People are just crying for some color by then."

And then there are the succulents, which come in all sorts of shapes and textures. Long or squat. Pointy or round. Smooth or furry. Almost all of one greenhouse is devoted to them.

They also don't take much in the way of care, which makes them a great choice for those without a particularly green thumb. For those who prefer eating what they grow, Robin's Nest takes care of them, too.

"We grow 86 varieties of tomatoes and nearly that many peppers. It's great fun. We have people who come from St. Louis for them. We call 'em freaks. Not geeks. Freaks. If you drive that far to get a pepper, you're not a geek, you're a freak. We love those kinds of people."

"I know I sound corny, but I am," Robin Kaiser said. "Every single day, truly, I see something else that I hadn't noticed before. I do."